This week has been totally devoted to bookmaking. I’ve made quite a bit of progress. Several of the pages are completed, and I’ve worked out a plan for the binding.
One problem with bookmaking (and I’ve only just now realized this problem) is that it’s not very conducive to weekly blogging. Sure, I can share some images of my progress, but making a complete and finished artists’ book takes quite a bit of time. I’m hoping by next week I can post the finished product.
I wanted to work on a new painting this week, but I couldn’t get myself motivated. The blank canvas can be my dreaded enemy, and this week my nemesis reared its ugly head. Painting often intimidates me because it feels too personal, as if I’ll be exposed when my work is viewed. I don’t feel the same way about bookmaking. I suppose it’s because the act of viewing an artists’ book is very intimate. Books are one-on-one and private, whereas paintings seem to scream a particular point of view to an entire crowd of people. When I make a book I feel like I have ample time and space within the pages to convey my ideas. A painting, on the other hand, offers me only one shot to say what I gotta say. (Someone pass me the Xanax, please.)
Despite this anxiety towards traditional painting, I still very much feel compelled to explore this art form. The book I’m currently making is turning itself into an improvised sketchbook. I see the individual pages as little ideas I’m interested in exploring further. Hopefully some of my discoveries during this creation process will lead me down some new paths.
Megan Caldwell Chandler 
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